Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Kentervilskoe prividenie" or "The Canterville Ghost" is a Soviet 20-minute short film by the Brumberg sisters and here they show us their take on the pretty famous Oscar Wilde story. It is from 1972, so has its 45th anniversary next year. It is certainly a very family friendly version, however. There are no scary moments in here, the horror component is entirely absent and instead the focus is on comedy and telling a story that also children can watch. I must say i liked the ending somehow, but everything in-between, especially everything about the family who moved in, was fairly forgettable, sometimes pretty weak even. Another example of how harmless this movie is is how we don't see the ghost sever his head, but put it back on and we only see him very briefly headless. As a whole, I cannot say I am too familiar with the original story, but this one here also does not get me curious about it, even if the animation is mostly okay for the early 1970s. The bad outweighs the good and I give it a thumbs-down.
